Useless or Pointless Drills or Exercises

[geepers]

Pivot slips are passably good for separation, but the slipping aspect is too far removed from a good turn for me.

Pivot slips are good for separation, fore/aft balance, edge control, simultaneous release of skis, etc.

But where they are really good is for getting through this steep, icy, scraped, sob pitch on the way home after a hard days skiing when you really don't wanna put in the effort trying to hold an edge for pete's sake legs are cooked. Hey, crew, great pitch for drills - pivot slips! And when we get down there (point to the pleasant mellow pitch below) how about some white pass turns? (Vain attempt to restore dignity...)

 

[James]

Almost no one wants to do Speiss or hop turns.

I feel like spiess work on the same thing as pivot slips, but with the added benefit of a hard edge set and being dynamic. Pivot slips are passably good for separation, but the slipping aspect is too far removed from a good turn for me. Don't get me started on how stupid the ones where you go backwards as well are

So pivoting your skis 90 degrees or more in the air is really that much “better” than pivoting them 180deg on the snow? What about the extension part in going up in Speiss/hop?

Sliding sideways is an important part of skiing, doesn’t need to be a turn. One can’t rip arcs all day in hard moguled snow in the woods.

 

[Racetiger]

Because this thread is the most current listing anywhere in the World of ” Useless or Pointless Drills or Exercises”, every drill listed in this thread is now officially considered a bad drill. People really should not have included their favorites. Talk about screwing the pooch … which also happens to be another drill. Anyway, I just love the “Pointless drills” reference. The poignantly parallel double entendre is a pleasantly refreshing sarcasm that makes the entire argument single handedly. That’s a clever cat.

 

[razie]

Talk about screwing the pooch …

I think that should be a different... thread...?

 

[jimtransition]

Almost no one wants to do Speiss or hop turns.

So pivoting your skis 90 degrees or more in the air is really that much “better” than pivoting them 180deg on the snow? What about the extension part in going up in Speiss/hop?

Sliding sideways is an important part of skiing, doesn’t need to be a turn. One can’t rip arcs all day in hard moguled snow in the woods.

Well yes, because you're having to coordinate your edges to grip, like in a good turn, rather than slide, in a meh turn. There's no need to turn your skis 180 degrees, because you don't do so when skiing. The extension doesn't carry over to a regular turn, but the dynamism does.

Richie Berger showed me the value of spiess turns in breakable crust in the trees, told us 'here you can't slide' and then hopped down the hill (I think I managed 3 or 4 before getting tired ).

 

[BTWilliams]

How about the other side of the coin....the most USEFUL drills. For me (80s ski racer who took a 25 year break) learning to ski modern equipment, the following have been most helpful, in order that they should be mastered:

1. Garlands - There is really so much going on with this simple drill. I don't think you can truly enter a carve well till you have the required lower leg motions and overall body position/balance dialed. It provides the building blocks (foot, ankle, knee feel, balance in transition...etc) to get into a carved turn.
2. Swiss Drill - For me, this drill is critical, to keeping boot tongue pressure during transition. If you lose pressure on the shovel of your new inside ski, everything that follows will suffer.
3. White Pass / InsideOut / Norwegian Drill - This builds the muscle memory and balance that allows your old DH ski to "stay in charge" as it becomes the new inside ski. If you are trying to achieve high edge angles, your turn has to start fast...and this drill is key to that.
4. Javelins - Critical for DH ski muscle memory and overall balance in the "heavy" phase of the turn

To me, these are the big 4 fundamental drills.

 

[geepers]

 

[jimtransition]

Watched a bit, but just seemed like the guy on the right ranting about other ski schools in his area, so I gave up. Which drills did they say?